(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a harness protector structure for a link, in which a wiring harness is bent and arranged along a harness protector provided on a rotatable link.
(2) Description of the Related Art
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a conventional harness arranging structure to a link (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-260770).
In this conventional structure, a pair of links 41 and 42 is rotatably connected, a base end part of one link 41 is rotatably supported by a vehicle body 43 around a shaft part 44 while a base end part of another link 42 is freely supported by a slide door 45, a wiring harness 46 for supplying electricity is arranged along both links 41 and 42 from the vehicle body 43 to the slide door 45, and when the slide door 45 is opened or closed, the one link 41 can swing back and forth in a vehicle with respect to the shaft part 44 as a fulcrum while the other link 42 can swing with respect to an intermediate shaft part 47 as a fulcrum at an angle larger than that of the one link 41, so that the pair of the links 41 and 42 follows a movement of the slide door 45.
The wiring harness 46 is fastened to the link 41 and 42 with a taping 48. A connector 49 at an end of the wiring harness 46 is connector-connected to the wiring harness 46 situated on the side of the slide door 45. A part 50 of the wiring harness 46 guided out from an end of the other link 42 is expanded and contracted when the slide door 45 is opened and closed.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a conventional harness protector structure of a bending type (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H3-15213).
In this conventional structure, a pair of rectangular tube-shaped protectors 51 and 52 made of synthetic resin is bendably connected to each other with an intermediate thin one-piece hinge 53 so as to construct a harness protector, a wiring harness 54 passes through both protectors 51 and 52, and the harness protector is bent at the hinge 53 when the harness protector is conveyed while the harness protector is stretched straight and arranged when the harness protector is mounted on a vehicle.
FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate an example of a conventional harness protector structure for a link.
In this conventional structure, a rotary link 2 is rotatably connected to a support plate 1 situated on a fixed side at a shaft part, a wiring harness 8 passes through two rectangular tube-shaped protectors 3 and 55, the protectors 3 and 55 are fastened to the support plate 1 and the link 2, respectively, so that the wiring harness 8 is rotated integrally with the link 2.
However, in the structure shown in FIG. 2, the wiring harness 46 slackens at the intermediate shaft part 47, i.e. a connecting part 47 of both links 41 and 42, when the links 41 and 42 rotate, possibly causing an interference with the outside. In the structure shown in FIG. 3, a bent part 56 of the wiring harness 54 slackens and projects (shown with a reference numeral 56′ in FIG. 3) at the hinge 53 when the protectors 51 and 52 are bent, resulting in that the slack at the bent part 56′ is not removed when the protectors 51 and 52 are to be stretched straight, that is, the protectors 51 and 52 are hardly stretched straight.
In the structure shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, as shown in FIG. 4B, when the link 2 is used being rotated largely as much as 180 degrees, the wiring harness 8 is bent with a small radius (shown with a reference numeral 20 in FIG. 4B) between the protector 3 situated on the side of the support plate 1 and the protector 55 situated on the side of the link 2, resulting in that bending durability of the wiring harness 8 is deteriorated or that a slack of the wiring harness 8 takes place between both protectors 3 and 55 and said slack 20 projects, possibly causing an interference with other components and so on and causing a damage or noise.